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_ Archbishop Wayne Boosahda
All Rights Reserved – copyright 1997

The worship of the Living God, as it has been revealed in historic Christian faith, has come down to us through the root system of the tradition of ancient Israel.  It has been embodied in the revelation of God in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and has been hammered out on the anvil of the experience of God’s worshiping people through history.  The fullness, beauty, and power of orthodox Christian faith and worship has stood the test of heretics and false brethren, of persecution and martyrdom, of major socio-political shifts at the change-over of key historical eras, as well as the subtle dangers of acceptability, prosperity and prestige in certain times and places. 

           The worship of God in Jesus Christ has come down to us in our modern era as a tapestry shredded and fragmented by the sins of God’s people in breaking the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace given us originally as our heritage in Christ, the Incarnate Lord.  That which began as a beautiful whole, a tapestry of many colors and varied threads which, together, revealed the fullness of Christ in the midst of His Church, has been torn and rent apart as men in their self-centered preoccupations for power, in their pride and arrogance and lack of love and humility have gradually separated that which God gave to the Church as a complete and comprehensive experience. 

            In the contemporary spiritual renewal that many today are calling the “convergence movement”, or “convergence of streams”, I believe we are beginning to see a significant attempt by the Spirit of God to restore the intrinsic wholeness and fullness of Christian worship.  God the Holy Spirit seems to be restoring, reweaving the separated threads of the tapestry so that once again God’s people may rejoice in Him with the gladness that only the blending or convergence of separated, isolated streams can offer the Church, and through the Church, may be offered to the world. 

           The three foundational elements of historic, biblical worship that began as a part of the comprehensive tapestry of the spiritual experience of the early Church were what might be described in today’s terms as evangelical, charismatic, and  liturgical/sacramental.  These three aspects of the spiritual life and worship of the Christians of the early centuries were inherited from their roots in the worship of ancient Israel.  The evangelical element emerged from Israel’s emphasis on the inspired written law of the Lord and its’ faithful and regular exposition and public reading by the teaching priests appointed by God to lead His people in their worship.  The Law of the Lord, the contents of His covenant with His people and the foundational element in their ability to worship Him according to revelation and truth, was central to the worship of the Hebrew people.  This aspect of their worship transcended every phase of Israel’s experience with Yahweh, from mountain epiphany to desert tabernacle, and from temple grandeur to synagogue simplicity.

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Our Lady of the New Monasticism
Welcome to Treasures Old and New, our first blog on the worship, faith and mission elements of the Convergence Movement renewal.  We will be including other guest bloggers as part of what we trust will become a rich resource for mining the spiritual treasures God in His Son, Jesus Christ, has deposited in the life of His covenant people, both Old and New Covenant, through the last 4 millenia.  

Our Lord and Savior taught us, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13, verse 52, that "every scribe instructed in the nature of the kingdom of God is like the owner of a house who brings forth from his storehouse treasures new and old."  Increasingly, in our time at the beginning of the third millennium of Christianity, there is a growing groundswell of spiritual hunger, seeking and exploring from both scholars and theologians and the worshiping people of God in every expression and tradition of Christ's followers to move beyond the historical barriers of division and separation into the light of discovery and recovery of the riches of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ.

Every "stream" of the great "River" of the Christian tradition, emerging from the historical encounter of Israel with the God who reveals Himself and acts in history, has begun making connection with some of the vast spiritual resources, experiences and discoveries of the spiritual life found in other streams of Christian worship.  Followers of Jesus Christ from every tribe, people, language and nation are finding each other on a common "journey" that is leading to a greater fullness and depth of knowing, worshiping, and proclaiming Jesus Christ in daily life, fellowship and mission.

Our prayer to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the power of His Holy Spirit, is that all the streams may find their way back into the River, the fullness of God's triune Life of divine love, and be enriched and empowered to live out together the prayer of our Lord in John 17 for the unity of all His members.  Humbling ourselves to learn from the living Christ at work in every stream of the Church's life and witness opens up and widens the horizons of the spirituality, worship, living faith heritage, roots and mission of the kingdom of God demonstrated in the Church's "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one hope, one Body, one Spirit, one God and Father of us all; who is in all and through all."

May we as God's adopted sons and daughters in Christ, find the grace, love and humility to move beyond the constrictions of ignorance, sectarian pride and misunderstanding, which so often are the seedbeds of prejudice in all its ugly forms, and find in each others worship traditions "treasures old and new" that the Spirit of God has authored out of the rich redemptive work of Jesus Christ.  And may we as God's household, in finding the riches of Christ in the separated streams of the faith, be empowered as an incarnational, relational and missional army of worshipers through whom the genuine fragrance of the love and oneness found in the Person of Jesus Christ can be experienced by all separated brothers and sisters.  

As these eternal and transforming treasures are shared with one another, may the Spirit of God draw and attract through our witness a whole new generation of passionate disciples into the Way of Jesus across every barrier erected by our enemy's work of division and suspicion.  May we be among those who find great delight in authentic unity as together we encounter the fullness of Christ within the fullness of the Church that "the knowledge of the glory of the Lord may fill the earth as the waters cover the sea."
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